Employment, in vocational psychology dictionary

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Dictionary of Vocational Psychology

Employment

Doing useful things for which one receives consideration, which usually but not necessarily takes the form of monetary salary. Thus, a prisoner working in a prison-based factory that makes automobile license plates is employed. An individual's hobby may come to pay for itself and the other resources (e.g., food) necessary to sustain the activity, and all that separates a hobby from self-employment is the government saying that one owes tax after deduction of expenses. Employment can involve either activites that one manages for onself, or that are organized for oneself by others, and may be voluntary or involuntary. Voluntary employment generally has as as a primary (but not necessarily exclusive) aim the generation of at least as many resources as the activity consumes. Involuntary employment generally has as its aim to avoid the loss of resources greater than those required to sustain the required activities, coupled with the desire to avoid the negative consequences of the controlling authority. Although not usually conceived in this way, most paid jobs fall along a continuum between voluntary and involuntary employment, because once one 'chooses' to enter into a job (on a volunary basis), one is usually not as free to leave it until after a period of time has elapsed, or until after one has completed a set of agreed on activities.

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